Lahore: Former Pakistan Test captain Imran Khan has slammed Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for retaining departmental teams in the domestic cricket.
“Dawn” quoted him as saying on Tuesday, “Departmental cricket is a joke with the domestic cricket, I have never seen this type of cricket anywhere in the world.”
He said holding of trial camps for the selection of the teams showed that the cricketing authorities had no confidence on their own domestic cricket. “I have not a single example when he saw any trials held for the selection of the team throughout the world,” Imran claimed.
Imran said that he could only improve his cricket by playing in England, otherwise his talent would have been spoiled too by this domestic cricket. He said that regional cricket was essential and it was a source to produce quality cricketers.
He asked who would have interest in the departmental’s team while the regional teams had the supporters and backing of the respective regional peoples and that would generate the spirit in the youngsters.
Cricketer-turned politician Imran claimed that it was another flaw of the Pakistan domestic cricket that two first class tournament, one for the departments and second for the regional, had been running which had no example in the world.
The PCB had been changing the title of the domestic cricket tournament so rapidly that sometime even he could not understand which trophy was being played. He lamented that Pakistan had lot of talent which once was available in the West Indies, but this country was lacking in planning.
this guy is never happy with anything. yes this system isnt too great. but we need dept. teams because the players get employed by their respective depts. they need the income to survive. they have to keep all the realities in mind... its easy to criticize, we all know its all personal between him and zia.
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*Originally posted by akpower: *
this guy is never happy with anything. yes this system isnt too great. but we need dept. teams because the players get employed by their respective depts. they need the income to survive. they have to keep all the realities in mind... its easy to criticize, we all know its all personal between him and zia.
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I wonder why can't you hold some kinda position in PCB to guide them in the right path.
Imran has been saying this now so often and so long that it is begining to sound like a broken record. The system is not perfect, far from it, but it was from this very system that he was produced and it was this system that gave him the team which won the world cup. Instead of shouting from the sidelines he should be doing something positive like Rashid Latif academy.
The same story every three weeks is beginning to become a big YAWN.
I agree as far as Imran sounding like a broken record is concerned. He has been whinning about it every two or three weeks. But Imran was not a product of this system. He matured playing in England. First at Oxford and then at the county. The players that played major roles in winning the world cup were again not a product of this system. Wasim came in the team without playing a single match in domestic cricket and so did Waqar though he wasnt part of the world cup squad he did play a vital role in Pakistan success under Imran. Pakistani players basuically have raw talent and they polish after breaking into the national side. Imran and Miandad both handpicked players who havent played a single match at domestic level. Mostly their decisions proved right.
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*Originally posted by TomSawyer: *
Isn't it obvious? He wants to be invited and given the chair in PCB. Doesn't want to seem like wanting it.
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He could have done it long time ago and he can still get PCB chair without any hassle. You can keep whining.
Anyone who has seen domestic cricket these days would agree to Imran. I know still alot of great talented cricketers pop up from it, but we could have even more had the system been given more attention. Imran is right, we ought to improve our present domestic cricket system as its clearly in shambles.
Oh come on, look @ England, they have some of the crappiest players in the world, and they definitly have some of the best domestic/county structures in the world.
It basically depends on raw talent.
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*Originally posted by UMAIR316: *
Oh come on, look @ England, they have some of the crappiest players in the world, and they definitly have some of the best domestic/county structures in the world.
It basically depends on raw talent.
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Umair bhai, even the raw talent in our country needs a good platform to rise up, mature and be observed by selectors...
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*Originally posted by Spock: *
Umair bhai, even the raw talent in our country needs a good platform to rise up, mature and be observed by selectors...
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That's true - Had it not been for Imran Wasim, Waqar, Inzamam etc would have gone unnoticed like many others already did
Add Inzamam to the list as well. He had to fight the board to get him in the WC squad. He had played very few matches then. I am not sure about Aquib (correct me if I am wrong) but even Aquib was a similar case.
Once commentating Ravi Shastari speaking about Indian selection said what India needs was some one like Imran Khan, a person who did not select someone after looking at the statistics. Imran Khan choose players who at times did not even have statistics let alone good ones.
As for the structure, I think it does help the raw talent. World over players go and play in the county and mostly their games have improved. I remember Salem Malik playing county and coming back much better and improved. Saqlain has improved his batting in the County.
Cricket in UK has a monstrous rival Soccer, which commands more interest probably due to better pay. Yet still with the poor quality of English players and relatively low standards of county cricket, it is has one of the busiest schedules and the best players, world over, wanting to play in it.
The reason why Imran advocates the regional systems is because that would create public interest in the matches. In this regard I think he is 100 percent correct. The public interest will motivate the players to perform better and it would also make the local cricket self reliant as revenues would be generated and that would benefit the players and in the end cricket on the whole. Internationally cricket as a game progressed once television became a major role and thus huge money came in to the game.
I imagine if Pakistan get a regional system up and running successfully and the huge amount of public interest due to the passion for the game would make cricket as one of the top paying sector. [Still is … with match fixing … Imagine once it does there would be coaching academies everywhere just like they have computer related institutes… ].
